


Calling + Consent

by Aine Llewellyn (Mapon)



Series: Founding/Fall (2013) [6]
Category: Otherfaith Religion & Lore
Genre: Canon Disabled Character, F/F, Immortality, Not Really Character Death, Origin Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-25
Updated: 2015-08-25
Packaged: 2018-04-17 04:24:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4652139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mapon/pseuds/Aine%20Llewellyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An outdated but simple story: Adilene catches the eye of two gods, one far more considerate than the other, both leaving her utterly changed in the face of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Calling + Consent

**Author's Note:**

> **Calling - vocation - a strong inner impulse toward a particular course of action; influence to act with divine conviction/Consent - approval - permission for an act to occur; agreement to engage**

Adilene had hair the color of a winter sunset, skin as white as milk, and eyes that seemed colorless save when they shown iridescent in darkness. She lived where the City met the Country, and she was known throughout the bustling streets and chirping forests as a woman with pride and capability and strength. When no one would dare the cold, she would wrap herself in a cloak of white and find all the small creatures shivering in the expanses of snow.

She was well-loved and opened her home always to those who needed it, and always came the scent of ink and rich berries. And there came a day when a Girl-King donned a mask and walked to Adilene's home and knocked on the door and presented Herself as a most horrid man with oozing wounds and reeking breath and foul manners.

Adilene welcomed the man into her home as she did all guests and offered bread and butter and honey, but the man demanded a better gift. So Adilene took fish and fragrant herbs and offered that, but still the man was not satisfied. So Adilene took beer and pig and the best roots from the forest, but still the man was not satisfied.

So Adilene swung open her door and offered him a leave before she could call down all manner of spirits and souls for such unkind behavior, and it was then that the Girl-King dropped Her mask and revealed Herself, all dark night sky and tall tree, and for a moment Adilene could not speak but to look at Her, the God who was the World.

And the Girl-God apologized for such rude behavior and asked again for a meal, but only of bread and butter and honey, and they ate together. Later, much later after the sun had perished yet again, the Girl-King pressed Her lips to Adilene and left her a gift, and from there was gone.

Adilene had felt no such great love as she had then, and she cherished it in her heart and grew it bright in her hearth, and her home prospered even more with the blessings of the God.

It was that bright fire that caught the attention of the largest flame, and from His home in the mountains the Firebird turned and saw her, bustling about in the kitchen, and saw her flame, and decided it would be His own.

So He went down to His Oracle and let the boy become full of Him, and from there He too knocked on her door and begged entrance.

Adilene saw Him, all light and fire and brightness, and did not invite Him in. She stood in her doorway and asked what He had come for, as it was known in all the worlds that the Firebird did not come to the call of any man or mortal. And the Oracle smiled and simmered and told her that she had been chosen as the next Oracle of the God of Fire, to be taken in by Him and burned up in His fires.

And she said no.

the Firebird had not heard such dissent in all His life, and each soul in Him rebelled against the word and shrieked and demanded Adilene had herself over that instant for the glory of the flames. And still she said no. And so the Firebird shrieked louder and louder until the world began to snap, and it was then that the Girl-King, defender of the land, stepped behind Adilene and placed Her warm hands around the woman and murmured assurances that it would be alright.

And with the Girl-God holding her body close, Adilene nodded to the Firebird and let Him begin to burn her arms and chest and legs and every bit of her. She offered herself to the flame, and at that last moment when she was almost gone, the Girl-God of the World reached one hand into the flames and plucked Adilene from the heat. the Firebird screamed at the loss, but as Adilene left Him - Him, who had consumed most of her - a daughter of the flesh of Adilene flew from His body. He who had never had kin, He who was so shocked at the birth that it was no hardness for the Girl-God to wrap Adilene in black cloaks and whisk her away to the lands of the Orchard where she would forever lay - He who bore a daughter of white-red hair and colorless eyes and knew all that her mother had known and all that Her father had known and more beyond that too.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is _so old_. Created during a time when I didn't understand the Clarene, Adilene, or the Laethic Firebird all that well. It was an exploration of the functions of oracles in the Otherfaith. Needless to say, my understanding of the gods and of the oracular position within the Otherfaith has changed significantly.
> 
> Let's address briefly how horrid the Laetha is with consent. It isn't only the Firebird who really fails at acknowledging or considering consent when it comes to devotees. Specifically, the white Mircea Firebird is intentionally dismissive of it, due to Mircea's influence. Placing a 'time' to this story is pretty much impossible, since I wrote it without any consideration of myth cycles and such. However, we could place it after Mircea took control of the Firebird, which would make sense considering Mircea's pursuit of any 'light' he thinks will sustain him.
> 
> But if we consider the Firebird _as Himself_ in this story, sending down his oracle, we have to deal with our god ignoring the desires of his intended devotee. In the background of this story, Adilene was _already_ the devotee of the Laetha; she simply wasn't extreme or passionate in her devotion. She took his colors (milk skin, red hair, etc.) but was uninterested in pursuing a deeper relationship with the god. She's punished for this by the Laetha, though the Clarene does save her from being totally destroyed. The event leaves Adilene without her legs, though. She appears in other stories in a wheel chair or sitting.
> 
> Rather than reading this as a story advising us to follow the gods uncritically, we should actually look to Adilene's survival and the birth of her daughter, Althea Altair. Resisting the Laetha actually created more than accepting would have. the Laetha gets confronted with the word 'no', a powerful fire spirit is born from their confrontation, and Adilene is fundamentally changed into an almost-divine spirit. Her familial line (the Line of Adilene) is blessed with semi-divinity, since Adilene herself is touched by two gods. 
> 
> The story casts the Clarene in a more positive light than I have been writing her in lately (2015), and I think it's an important aspect of her. Protective, passionate, testing those around her but not too much. 
> 
> Outdated as it may be, I think it has important nuggets still.
> 
> _[from the 2013 Pagan Blog Project. word: **Calling** ]_


End file.
